Police seek ID of woman
ECONOMY, Beaver County — Jane Doe was buried in Beaver Cemetery Saturday, a year after she was discovered. A headstone being made will read: “Jane Doe discovered 12/12/2014.”
Police still are searching for the identity of this women whose embalmed head was found a year ago.
A resident walking along Mason Road Dec 12, 2014, discovered the head in a wooded area, several miles from Cranberry Township.
The Economy Borough Police Department, the Beaver County coroner and the Beaver County district attorney began an investigation to find the identity of the women.
That investigation has involved 20 professionals, organizations and agencies across the United States.
It included the Chinese Embassy in the United States, the FBI Forensic Laboratory, Quantico, Va., and IsoForensics of Salt Lake City.
During the past year, the department has looked into nearly 30 leads, but none led to identifying the woman.
On Monday, the police shared new information regarding the case.
In addition to the head being embalmed, the eyes had been removed, according to a press release from police Chief Michael O'Brien. Red rubber balls were put into the eye sockets and were covered with eye caps commonly used by funeral directors and embalmers.
The Chinese Embassy is investigating the origin of the rubber balls because they were made in China.
The release stated that Dennis Dirkmaat, forensic anthropologist of Mercyhurst University, confirmed the woman was white and older than 50.
The FBI laboratory determined dirt with her head is not from this area. Through toxicology it was determined she had traces of the drugs Lidocaine and Atropine, which indicates she might have died of some type of cardiac distress.
The North Texas University DNA Laboratory was asked to do an analysis, but the DNA is unavailable because the embalming process deteriorated the sample. A second sample is being analyzed.
Dr. Raymond Miller, Dr. Mary Bush and research scientist Peter Bush from the University of Buffalo examined her teeth and dental fillings. They determined the dental work was done during the late 1980s into the 1990s.
IsoForensics, which is a private research and analytical service company, did stable oxygen isotope testing which revealed the geographic area where she would have lived the last seven months of her life.
“Isotopes are elements in our bodies we get from our drinking water and foods we eat. The drinking water and foods are unique to certain geographical areas,” the release states. “Isotope testing, specifically on hair and teeth enamel, can predict where a person had been living up to the time of their death.”
According to IsoForensics, she changed her location four times. Seven months before her death she was living in an area from southwestern Pennsylvania including the eastern counties of Ohio, northern counties of West Virginia and Maryland, extending toward central Pennsylvania into eastern New York and parts of the Beaver County area.
During a time frame about four to six months before her death, investigators suspect she was in an area “geographically consistent” with the Allegheny Mountains. This includes Pennsylvania counties in the mountains extending into northwestern West Virginia and northwestern Maryland.
The last three months of her life were spent in central and eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio extending north along Lake Erie into New York at Lake Ontario.
Investigators think her death happened in this region.
The department is showing an age-regression sketch that has a “familiar likeness” of her in her 30s. The public is asked to look at the sketches and photographs of the clay sculptures.
“Her identity is the priority of this investigation. She deserves to have a name put to her face,” the release states. “Once that identification is made, we can move forward in the investigation.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Economy police at 724-876-0380 or by e-mail at police@economyboropd.com.
